Frustrated by a lack of informed and honest review websites covering a wide range of electronic music, I write them myself.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Various - Nokturnel Mix Sessions: Bill Hamel

Topaz: 1999

Nokturnal Mix Sessions was Topaz Records' premier DJ mix series – okay, only DJ mix series. They released around half-a-dozen of these CDs, but few names beyond the third-tier of trance jocks were ever featured. Blue Amazon's likely the most immediately recognizable name, and perhaps Scott Stubbs too, if you were following Topaz with any regularity (guy was all over the label). Bill Hamel's also a chap folks should know if they were fans of the deeper end of progressive house. Already a steady producer in the scene – including a single on Bedrock during their 'dark prog' years, though mostly releasing through his own Sunkissed Records print – Hamel wasn't much known for DJing, this mix in fact being his first official release. He followed it with an early contribution to Balance (aka: the pre-James-Holden era, when hardly anyone gave EQ Recordings much notice), but by and large kept his name in the realm of studio works.

As Topaz was hoping to establish itself as an American contender to the UK’s dominance in progressive trance circles, you bet this edition of Nokturnal Mix Sessions (Volume two? Fourth edition? I can only guess where this one falls in order with the series) is gonna’ crib some of its stylee from the big G.U.’s main players. Hamel’s sound found some kinship with John Digweed of the time, which probably led to his getting a bit chummier with Bedrock a few years after this mix. There’s quite a bit similarity to Digweed’s GU014: Hong Kong double-disc here, though obviously not as computer perfect with the mixing. Hell, I think this was a live turntable session.

After a blissy bit of Balearic business in Changing Shape’s Keep It On (some might know it better as the repurposed 16B track Keep On Changing Shape), Hamel quickly moves into chugging tech-house prog-whatever. Names like Medway, Smith & Selway, and DJ Remy – yeah, that sound – make up this section, but unfortunately ol’ Bill has no easy way of transitioning it into prog-trance territory afterwards. Just as well, then, he slightly cheats the process with the Incisions Mix of Travel’s Pray To Jerusalem, what with its break-beaty breakdown easing the clashing styles. Damn mint tune by the end of it though, progressive trance vibes in all its glorious 1999 heyday. Hell, throw in another ace Incisions remix of a Travel track (Bulgaria), plus Mr. Faber’s own Amorak, and you’d be forgiven for thinking this was an Incisions showcase – going by these tunes, he does deserve more props, methinks.

The rest of Nokturnal Mix Sessions – Bill Hamel’s Incisions Love In plays about as you’d expect a Digweed inspired set of this time would. Hell, I kept expecting Heaven Scent to emerge as the set climax, despite the fact Hamel used the Evolution Dub of the Bedrock anthem at the midway point of this mix. Though a notch below the premier mixes of the era, this is a perfectly acceptable progressive trance CD for one's collection.